Room for Ice Cream, Not Cranes

Right now, it’s 15° outside, and it feels like 2°. It is the end of February in New England, after all. And to celebrate our anniversary, Seth and I went to an ice cream parlor. Not just any ice cream parlor. We went to the townie hangout, which sells pizza, roast beef, subs, and ice cream. We didn’t stay. The townies were watching us.

Shh, It’s a Secret

• Location: the movie theater, a Disney display
• Date: February 27, 2008
• Description: Apple green crane with two quotes

Tomorrow is my anniversary. We take turns planning it every year, and this year is my year, so I’ve planned a secret anniversary date. And after the secret anniversary date (that I’ve had planned for almost a month! The secret is killing me), we’ll go to the movies — which is why I stopped by the theater this evening. This part isn’t a secret. But doesn’t this crane look neat, tucked up in that Disney movie display? It’s cardboard, not real machine parts.

Waiting on the World to Change

I’m a John Mayer fan — not one who pastes posters of him above my bed, or one who wears shirts that say things like “Future Mrs. Mayer,” but I do listen to his music in the car. I can’t seem to get the song “Waiting on the World to Change” out of my head. This is so frustrating because I like the melody, but I absolutely despise the lyrics. Here are the parts in particular that I hate:

Now we see everything that’s going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don’t have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting
Waiting on the world to change

And also:

It’s not that we don’t care,
We just know that the fight ain’t fair
So we keep on waiting
Waiting on the world to change

Here’s the thing — I understand the feeling of discontentment with the way things are. I understand feeling like a single person is not going to make a difference. But I also understand that that’s wrong. A single person can make a difference, and I hate this song because it advocates the opposite.

The problem is that it’s tough to go against the flow, or to try to make your voice heard. It’s much easier to just give up and wait for something to happen. That’s a very passive way of thinking. How can anything happen if no one stands up and tries to make it happen? And even if something does change, it will probably take much longer than if somebody had advocated for it in the beginning. Am I making sense? I know I’m not using concrete imagery here.

I’m not trying to get people to rise up against John Mayer, or to stop listening to his song. All I’m saying is that it would be a travesty if people took this song to heart and let their discontent and feeling of being too small/alone keep them from advocating for what they believe. And while the song also broadcasts a message of hope,

One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population
So we keep on waiting

it’s still a non-committal form, where the speaker happens to come into power without any real effort. By that time, it may be too late. Perhaps if more people in positions of influence, like John Mayer, stood up and said, “Yes, I don’t like the way things are and yes, it’s hard to change it. But I think we can, and I want to try. Who’s with me?” then we’d have less feelings of isolation/helplessness and more action.

This post isn’t exactly about cranes, but I sang this song all evening. I like the tune so much that I’ve thought about writing the lyrics on a crane, but this is not the type of message I want to put out there. It relates. Trust me.

Crane in New Hampshire

• Location: Michael’s craft store in Concord, NH
• Date: February 23, 2008
• Description: Blue crane with a pinkish dove folded in the middle and a border saying “Extend the olive branch — practice peace.”

Today’s crane made it to New Hampshire via my friend Leah, who requested a crane to be mailed. I get so excited about these things — my first picture from a mailed-out crane! It’s just been a weekend of excitement for me.

In addition to having road rage, I have grocery store rage — or I did today. For some reason, I grumbled at the people meandering down the aisles, and inwardly rolled my eyes at the ones who didn’t look before they turned corners and cut me off. I really need to let things roll off my back. It might’ve had something to do with the fact that I was hungry. I can get quite fugly when I’m hungry. Lesson of the day: Don’t get between me and my food? That sounds ominous. How about this: Don’t mind me when I’m hungry and I cast menacing glances at you and your grocery cart.

Once again, I have decided that leaving a crane at the local high school is a bad idea. I know I came up with this conclusion before, but here’s another reason why: When I was in third or fourth grade, I wrote a love note to a boy. It was an anonymous love note, and I decorated it with purple chalk, and it was kind of antagonistic (what can I say? I was 9). I left it in his desk. Well, the kid it was meant for showed it to his friend, who thought it was from me and tried to force my hand by telling the principal about it, who happened to be our emergency substitute for the afternoon. It was a bad chain of events, because then the principal confronted the class. She said it was a very serious offense to leave anonymous notes, and she would be taking further action to find out who left it. That put me off leaving more anonymous antagonistic love notes.

I had a lapse in memory today and thought maybe I’d head over to the high school, pretend I lost one of my books, and poke around until I found a good place to leave a crane. It’s a good thing my repressed embarrassing childhood memory saved me from going. I could’ve gotten caught — again.

Hurray! Hurray for Clark U!

• Location: Traina Center for the Arts, Clark University, Worcester
• Date: February 24, 2008
• Description: Dark blue crane with a gold embossed olive branch on each wing

Last night in Worcester, we saw a concert called Con Brio: Piano for Four Hands with my friend from high school. Afterwards, we poked around the arts building and came across a secluded (at the moment) art gallery. I know it was incredibly disrespectful, but I left a crane on someone’s art. This particular sculpture is an island that has eyes, and the island is floating in the middle of an ocean. I added a crane as though I could have dropped it there. To the artist: I apologize for disrupting your work; I meant no harm. To the person who found the crane and left a comment: Hurray! Thank you for picking it up and checking out the web address.

One of our topics of discussion yesterday was driving in Massachusetts. I have road rage, and I have it bad — not to the point of owning a gun, mind you. I’m not one of those people. But I have been known to get angry and swear and tell people how awful their driving is from the privacy of my own car. And I know that sounds extreme, but this is one of the most congested commutes in North America, and we’re not called Massholes for nothing. I also know that it’s not healthy to get angry over something as dumb as other people’s bad driving, so I’ve adopted the book-on-tape remedy. I’m happy to announce that when I listen to a book in the car, I keep my thoughts to myself and drive slow. Very slow.

An update on yesterday’s candy crane: While my friend and I were in a store at the mall, Seth waited outside. He noticed a group of kids playing with the gumball machines, and then a janitor working in that same area. And ten minutes later when we walked out, the crane was gone. Hurray again!